Seoul
CNN
—
“She’s smiling, look at her smile, her face.” Oh Il-seok appears to be like lovingly at {a photograph} of his daughter taken within the final hours of her life. As he takes off his glasses to wipe his eyes, his spouse whispers, “Ji-min is my friend, she is my best friend.”
Oh Ji-min, 25, was among the many 158 individuals who died in a crowd crush throughout Halloween festivities in Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife district on October 29.
Her mother and father have the unthinkable process of piecing together her final moments from selfies and images taken on her cell phone.
At 9:35 p.m., the images present Ji-min smiling inside a bar. At 9:59 p.m., she messages a pal to say she goes dwelling. Just a few images with fellow revelers in fancy gown comply with, then, at 10:07 p.m., the final picture of Ji-min, smiling together with her pal Kim.
The pair then headed for the subway, weaving their approach by means of the lots. Within minutes they have been caught in a panicking crowd, and swept off their toes right into a slender alleyway the place scores of individuals are to die.
“We didn’t mean to go down that alleyway … it felt like we got sucked in,” recalled Kim, who requested to be recognized solely by her household title and spoke to CNN within the days main as much as a memorial held for the victims on Friday.
“I got separated from (Ji-min) as two other men walked between us. When that happened, I lost my loafers but my feet were not touching the ground and I was just being moved by the crowd.”
Official sources time the deadly crush as starting at 10:15 p.m., simply eight minutes after Ji-min’s ultimate selfie. All 158 deaths passed off within the alleyway – about 4 meters (13 toes) vast – that the 2 younger girls have been swept into. In addition to the various younger South Koreans and 26 foreigners who died, 196 folks have been injured – Kim amongst them.
“Someone in front me fell and I fell down too,” Kim mentioned. “The next thing I realized was that I was lying on top of a foreign man and people piled on top of me and others. I was on the second layer of that pile.”
Hope got here when she noticed a face of a paramedic in entrance of her. He tried to drag out a lady however each time her physique moved the pile of individuals screamed.
“We were already pressed but the attempt to pull her added more pain to us, so he had to stop,” Kim mentioned.
One police officer who attended the scene mentioned by the point he arrived there was already a pile of our bodies within the alleyway.
“We couldn’t pull people out from the bottom, there was too much pressure, I assume they had already died,” mentioned the officer, who requested anonymity attributable to worry of retribution from superiors.
“People in the second and third layers were fading, crying out for help, but we couldn’t pull them out.”
Video investigation: How an evening of celebrations turns right into a catastrophe
His account tallies with that of a primary responder who advised CNN they noticed as much as “10 rows of faces (but) we couldn’t even see their legs.”
Kim’s recollection of her personal rescue is hazy. “I was pulled out and I spent some time lying on the ground. I think I lost myself for sometime and woke up again. It was around 12:30 a.m. when I was moved in an ambulance.”
“I was hospitalized for one night and discharged. I couldn’t walk until the next morning. I pinched my legs but didn’t feel anything. I left hospital but I couldn’t feel my legs for about 10 days.”
Ji-min’s mom, Kim Eun-mi, had no concept her daughter was in Itaewon. She started to fret as a result of Ji-min at all times got here dwelling early from an evening out.
“I met Ji-min for shopping that day as it was Saturday. After shopping we had lunch together and she was off to see her friend. So when I heard from my son that she went to Itaewon, I said, ‘no, she went to see her friend.’”
All by means of the night time, the household made frantic calls to Ji-min’s mobile phone, hospitals and the police, visiting her close by flat in case she had already come dwelling.
At 1 p.m. the next afternoon the household obtained a name asking them to come back and establish Ji-min’s physique at a hospital morgue.
“It is truly devastating to identify your own child,” Kim Eun-mi mentioned. In between sobs, her husband added, “When I go to bed… that image comes to me so I can’t sleep.”
The household go to see Ji-min on a regular basis on the memorial park, near dwelling. On each sleepless night time, Ji-min’s mother and father go to a web-based chat room that brings together relations of those that misplaced their family members within the tragedy.
Kim Eun-mi mentioned it’s useful to speak to others in the identical scenario as a result of solely they’ll perceive one another’s ache.
Grief is turning into clouded with unanswered questions and anger within the dwelling the place Ji-min grew up.
“The hardest and most frustrating part is that no one is held responsible. The tragedy happened, but no one is responsible,” Kim Eun-mi mentioned.
A consultative group fashioned by the bereaved families of greater than 97 victims of the crush has known as for a proper apology from President Yoon Suk Yeol and demanded the dismissal of the nation’s security minister for failing to forestall a tragedy.
While Yoon has expressed his “condolences” to the families, he has stopped in need of an apology – saying that “people who are specifically responsible” must be held accountable.
Safety Minister Lee Sang-min, talking on Oct. 30, mentioned the tragedy couldn’t have been prevented by dispatching police or fireplace division forces upfront.
A particular investigation is ongoing throughout the National Police Agency however a parliamentary investigation has but to start attributable to political infighting.
So far, two cops have been dismissed and arrested, accused of destroying an inside report in regards to the dangers stemming from a big crowd gathering in Itaewon throughout Halloween festivities.
The former chief police officer of Yongsan district Lee Im-jae is being investigated on suspicion {of professional} negligence and forging an official doc, whereas the previous emergency monitoring officer Song Byung-joo is being investigated on suspicion {of professional} negligence.
The police officer who spoke to CNN mentioned he’s involved by the route the investigation seems to be taking. He fears it’s too centered on errors made after the tragedy quite than the dearth of security planning forward of time.
CNN reporter returns to Itaewon’s slender alley someday after the Halloween catastrophe. See what’s it like
“The problem with this now is that the people who should really be responsible are not taking responsibility. The direction of the investigation is not looking up, only down,” mentioned the police officer.
“There may have been mistakes trying to save just one more life but if you blame us, who would want to do this job.”
Ji-min’s mother and father mentioned they’ve heard nothing from the federal government since their daughter’s funeral was held.
Politics has no place within the investigation, they mentioned. They need details about how and the place their daughter died and solutions to the tougher query of why.
As they give the impression of being by means of a field of birthday playing cards and images with mates retrieved from her daughter’s flat, they battle with the life-changing tragedy that ought to by no means have occurred.
“She was so warm and lovely,” Kim Eun-mi mentioned of her daughter. “She was such a lovely daughter to me but she’s not with me anymore.”
Her voice falters as sobs overtake her as soon as once more.
